ICONIC BUILDINGS: Maison Hermès by Renzo Piano

World renowned fashion brand Hermès enlisted Renzo Piano to create a building for their Tokyo head office in 1998. To this day the Maison Hermès building remains a showstopping example of the late 1990s architecture. The building located in the famed Ginza shopping district was completed in 2001. The local regulations have in great part shaped the glass facade building, with the strict local laws regarding earthquake and fire safety.

What makes the building even more impressive is the only 10 meter wide Harumi Avenue front facade, with building going 56 meters long on it’s quite street side. The impressive facade of the Maison Hermès is made out of 13000 square glass blocks while the building corners feature curved glass bricks. The glass blocks were specially commissioned at Vetroarredo in Florence and had to go by the Tokyo fire and earthquake safety regulations.

While made of glass the facade in case of an earthquake is designed to move responding to the waves thanks to the flexible seals between the glass blocks. The blocks under the earthquake pressure can move up to 4mm, thus taking in the earthquake shock instead of resisting the seismic movement.

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